After inflation, workers on minimum wage haven’t made this little since the 1950s

Most Americans weren’t born the final time the federal minimum wage purchased as little because it does in the present day. It’s been practically 13 years since Congress raised the nation’s baseline pay to $7.25 an hour, and that fee is now value lower than at any time in 66 years, a brand new evaluation finds. 

Factoring in the newest inflation knowledge, the present worth of the U.S. minimum wage in actual {dollars} is at its lowest degree since February 1956, when the base U.S. wage was 75 cents (or $7.19 in June 2022 {dollars}), in keeping with the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning suppose tank that favors elevating employee pay.

Meanwhile, workers who earn the federal minimum in the present day earn roughly 27% much less in inflation-adjusted phrases than their counterparts did in July 2009, the final time Congress enacted a rise, EPI calculated. Americans incomes the minimum in the present day are taking in the equal of 40% much less an analogous employee in February 1968, when the worth of the base wage was at its peak.

While lawmakers on Capitol Hill haven’t raised the federal minimum wage or index it to inflation, 30 states round the nation and practically 50 cities and counties have upped pay for these incomes the least. 

A dozen states and the District of Columbia mandate wages of a minimum of $15 an hour or larger, and Hawaii lawmakers just lately voted to hike the state’s minimum to $18 by 2028, EPI famous. Workers in additional than 20 states, cities and counties acquired a wage increase on July 1 as larger minimums kicked in. 

Below the poverty line

Still, the base pay’s buying energy in most of these 30 states is under the place it was in 1968, when the federal minimum was value $13.86 in 2022 {dollars}, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator. 

Minimum-wage workers in 20 states proceed to earn $7.25 an hour — a pay fee that’s under the poverty line of $8.38 for households of two or extra the place one individual is working. Those 20 states: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. 

Separately, a survey carried out by Purdue University just lately discovered that Generation Z members  — Americans born after 1996 — are struggling the most to feed themselves and their households. About 16% of the nation reported experiencing meals insecurity in the final 30 days, however 30% of Gen Z adults reported getting free meals from a meals pantry or charity in the similar timeframe, in keeping with the month-to-month ballot of greater than 1,200 Americans.